Quotes by Honoré de Balzac

“This coffee falls into your stomach, and straightway there is a general commotion. Ideas begin to move like the battalions of the Grand Army on the battlefield, and the battle takes place. Things remembered arrive at full gallop, ensign to the wind. The light cavalry of comparisons deliver a magnificent deploying charge, the artillery of logic hurry up with their train and ammunition, the shafts of wit start up like sharpshooters. Similes arise, the paper is covered with ink; for the struggle commences and is concluded with torrents of black water, just as a battle with powder.”

“... o ilk günden beri güneş daha az sıcak, daha az aydınlık, gece daha karanlık oldu; hareket hızını yitirdi, düşüncelere bir ağırlık geldi. Bazı insanları toprağa gömeriz, ama öyle insanlar vardır ki onların kefenleri yüreğimiz olmuştur, anıları her gün kalbimizin çarpışıyla beraberdir, soluk alır gibi onları düşünürüz, aşka özgü bir ruh titreşiminin tatlı yasasıyla varlığımıza sinmişlerdir. Bir ruh var ruhumda. Ben bir iyilik mi ettim, güzel bir söz mü söyledim, içimde bulunan o ruh hareket ediyor, konuşuyor; havaya yayılan güzel kokunun bir zambaktan gelişi gibi.”

“What moralists describe as the mysteries of the human heart are solely the deceiving thoughts, the spontaneous impulses of self-regard. The sudden changes in character, about which so much has been said, are instinctive calculations for the furtherance of our own pleasures. Seeing himself now in his fine clothes, his new gloves and shoes, Eugène de Rastignac forgot his noble resolve. Youth, when it swerves toward wrong, dares not look in the mirror of conscience; maturity has already seen itself there. That is the whole difference between the two phases of life.”

“However gross a man may be, the minute he expresses a strong and genuine affection, some inner secretion alters his features, animates his gestures, and colors his voice. The stupidest man will often, under the stress of passion, achieve heights of eloquence, in thought if not in language, and seem to move in some luminous sphere. Goriot's voice and gesture had at this moment the power of communication that characterizes the great actor. Are not our finer feelings the poems of the human will?”

“Hélas! Nous ne manquons jamais d'argent pour nos caprices, nous ne discutons que le prix des choses utiles ou nécessaires; nous jetons l'or avec insouciance à des danseuses, et nous marchandons un ouvrier dont la famille affamée attend la paiement d'un mémoire. Combien de gens ont un habit de cent francs, un diamant à la pomme de leur canne, et dinent à vingt-cinque sous? Il semble que nous n'achetions jamais assez chèrementles plaisirs de la vanité”

“Mais Paris est un véritable océan. Jetez-y la sonde, vous n'en connaîtrez jamais la profondeur. Parcourez-le, décrivez-le : quelque soin que vous mettiez à le parcourir, à le décrire ; quelques nombreux et intéressés que soient les explorateurs de cette mer, il s'y rencontrera toujours un lieu vierge, un antre inconnu, des fleurs, des perles, des monstres, quelque chose d'inouï, oublié par les plongeurs littéraires.”

“If the artist does not fling himself, without reflecting, into his work, as Curtis flung himself into the yawning gulf, as the soldier flings himself into the enemy's trenches, and if, once in this crater, he does not work like a miner on whom the walls of his gallery have fallen in; if he contemplates difficulties instead of overcoming them one by one ... he is simply looking on at the suicide of his own talent.”

“There are no principles; there are only events. There is no good and bad, there are only circumstances. The superior man espouses events and circumstances in order to guide them. If there were principles and fixed laws, nations would not change them as we change our shirts and a man can not be expected to be wiser than an entire nation.”

“A line is a method of expressing the effect of light upon an object; but there are no lines in Nature, everything is solid. We draw by modeling, that is to say, that we disengage an object from its setting; the distribution of the light alone gives to a body the appearance by which we know it.”

“How did you get back?' asked Vautrin. 'I walked,' replied Eugene.'I wouldn't like half-pleasures, myself,' observed the tempter. 'I'd want to go there in my own carriage, have my own box, and come back in comfort. All or nothing, that's my motto.''And a very good one,' said Madame Vauquer.”

“If you have any mind to keep my respect, I recommend you not to add imbecility to these qualities by imagining that such a girl as I am will be content with your asthmatic love, and not look for youth and good looks and pleasure by way of a variety—”

“Such is life. It is no cleaner than a kitchen; it reeks like a kitchen; and if you mean to cook your dinner, you must expect to soil your hands; the real art is in getting them clean again, and therein lies the whole morality of our epoch.”

“Quand les enfants commencent à voir, ils sourient; quand une jeune fille entrevoit le sentiment dans la nature, elle sourit comme elle souriait enfant. Si la lumière est le premier amour de la vie, l'amour n'est-il pas la lumière du cœur?”

“Hortense was a wife; Valerie a mistress.Many men desire to have these two editions of the same work, although it is proof of deep inferiority in a man if he cannot make his wife his mistress. Seeking variety is a sign of impotence.”

“He hesitated till the last moment, but finally dropped them in the box, saying, "I shall win!"--the cry of a gambler, the cry of the great general, the compulsive cry that has ruined more men than it has ever saved.”

“Paris that eternal monstrous marvel … the city of a hundred-thousand novels … a living creature, the great courtesan whose face and heart and mind-boggling morals they know: “They” are the lovers of Paris.”

“Do you know how a man makes his way here? By brilliant genius or by skilful corruption. You must either cut your way through these masses of men like a cannon ball, or steal among them like a plague.”

“Women themselves are so happy, and so beautiful, when they're strong, that they naturally choose powerful men, even if that power's so enermous there's a real risk it could shatter them.”

“Man cannot spend all his time doing evil, and even in the company of pirates there must be some sweet moments on their sinister ship when you feel as if you were aboard a pleasure yacht.”

“Trust no one until you are very sure of the heart to which you open your heart. Learn to mistrust every one; take every precaution for the sake of the love which does not exist as yet.”

“It is always assumed by the empty-headed, who chatter about themselves for want of something better, that people who do not discuss their affairs openly must have something to hide.”

“As soon as coffee is in your stomach, there is a general commotion. Ideas begin to move…similes arise, the paper is covered. Coffee is your ally and writing ceases to be a struggle.”

“Love is a religion, and its rituals cost more than those of other religions. It goes by quickly and, like a street urchin, it likes to mark its passage by a trail of devastation.”

“Perhaps it is only human nature to inflict suffering on anything that will endure suffering, whether by reason of its genuine humility, or indifference, or sheer helplessness.”

“Some sentiment other than love united these two beings, and inspired with mutual anxiety their movements and their thoughts. Misery is, perhaps, the most powerful of all ties.”

“Is there any instinct more deeply implanted in the heart of man than the pride of protection, a protection which is constantly exerted for a fragile and defenceless creature?”

“Karşılık görmemiş duygular bazı ruhlarda kin haline gelir, bende ise öyle olmadı; yoğunlaştı bu duygular içimde, bir yer etti kendine, sonra da oradan hayatıma fışkırdı.”

“I yield to your wishes. It is the privilege of the women whom we love more than they love us to make the men who love them ignore the ordinary rules of common-sense.”

“Madame de Nucingen was already there, dressed with the deliberate aim of appealing to all eyes, knowing that thereby she would seem even more attractive to Eugène.”

“The human heart may find here and there a resting-place short of the highest height of affection, but we seldom stop in the steep, downward slope of hatred.”

“Of necessity she went further in aversion than she had gone in love, for her hatred was not in proportion to her love but to her disappointed hopes.”

“When women love us, they forgive us everything, even our crimes; when they do not love us, they give us credit for nothing, not even our virtues.”

“If you decide to join up with me, I want it to be because you're making a rational choice, not because you've been pushed by passion or despair.”

“The duchess turned on Eugène with one of those insolent stares that envelop a man from head to foot, flatten him out, and leave him at zero.”

“Young man,' Porbus said, seeing Poussin stare open-mouthed at a picture, 'Don't look at the canvas too long, it will drive you to despair.”

“Yes, I can understand that a man might go to gambling table - when he sees that all that lies between himself and death is his last crown”

“Though the human heart may have to pause for rest when climbing the heights of affection it rarely stops on the slippery slope of hatred.”

“Conscience, my dear, is a kind of stick that everyone picks up to thrash his neighbor with, but one he never uses against himself.”

“Women are always true, even in the midst of their greatest falsities, because they are always influenced by some natural feeling.”

“Here is a perfect poem; to awaken a longing, to nourish it, to develop it, to increase it, to stimulate it – and to gratify it.”

“A letter is a soul, so faithful an echo of the speaking voice that to the sensitive it is among the richest treasures of love.”

“If the human heart sometimes finds moments of pause as it ascends the slopes of affection, it rarely halts on the way down.”

“for she was invaded by a kind of love which every girl has gone through —the love of the unknown, love in its vaguest form,”

“The word 'love,' used in connection with the reproduction of our species, is the most odious blasphemy taught in our times.”

“One can imagine the look the two lovers exchanged; it was like a flame, for virtuous lovers have not a shred of hypocrisy.”

“You're a fine fastidious young man, as proud as a lion, as gentle as a girl. You'd make a good catch for the devil.”

“I do not share the belief in indefinite progress for society as a whole; I believe in man’s improvement in himself.”

“Cruelty and fear shake hands together. An unfulfilled vocation drains the color from a man's entire existence.”

“A man who prides himself on going in a straight line through life is an idiot who believes in infallibility.”

“La solitude est une belle chose; mais il faut quelqu'un pour vous dire que la solitude est une belle chose.”

“Affreuse condition de l'homme ! Il n'y a pas un de ses bonheurs qui ne vienne d'une ignorance quelconque.”

“Some day you will find out that there is far more happiness in another's happiness than in your own.”

“First love is a kind of vaccination which saves a man from catching the complaint a second time.”

“And he, like many jaded people, had few pleasures left in life save good food and drink.”

“We flew back home like swallows. 'Is it happiness that makes us so light?' Agathe asked.”

“I'm a great poet. I don't put my poems on paper: they consist of actions and feelings.”

“Wisdom is that apprehension of heavenly things to which the spirit rises through love.”

“Our heart is a treasury; if you pour out all its wealth at once, you are bankrupt.”

“No man should marry until he has studied anatomy and dissected at least one woman.”

“Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can turn it into a fact.”

“Who is to decide which is the grimmer sight: withered hearts, or empty skulls?”

“A beautiful book is a victory won in all the battlefields of human thought.”

“Our worst misfortunes never happen, and most miseries lie in anticipation.”

“Ah! What pleasure it must be to a woman to suffer for the one she loves!”

“If youth were not ignorant and timid, civilization would be impossible.”

“საზოგადოებრივი აზრი? - ეს ხომ ყოველ მეძავ ქალზე უფრო გარყვნილი არსებაა.”

“Power is not revealed by striking hard or often, but by striking true.”

“There's nothing so fearsome as the revolt of a sheep," said de Marsay.”

“Solitude is fine but you need someone to tell that solitude is fine.”

“There is no such thing as a great talent without great willpower.”

“Every moment of happiness requires a great amount of Ignorance”

“Virtue will cut your head off, vice will only cut your hair.”

“While seeking out the dead, I see nothing but the living.”

“Journalism, look you, is the religion of modern society.”

“What a thing of fantasy a woman may become after dusk.”

“Life cannot go on without a great deal of forgetting.”

“Înclinarea spre lene - desfrâul sufletelor poetice.”

“He looked like some plant bleached by darkness.”

“Behind every great fortune there is a crime.”

“I believe in the incomprehensibility of God.”

“Il ya toute une vie dans une heure d'amour.”

“All happiness depends on courage and work.”

“True love rules especially through memory.”

“Good befalls us while we sleep, sometimes.”

“The more one judges, the less one loves.”

“The more a man judges, the less he loves”

“For avarice begins where poverty ends.”

“Where poverty ceases, avarice begins.”

“Le bonheur est la poésie des femmes.”

“I am a galley slave to pen and ink.”

“Love is the poetry of the senses!”

“Glory is the sunshine of the dead”